The Witcher: 8 differences between the show and the books, explained

Image: The Witcher/Netflix

A lot of the sorceresses had their backstories altered

Yennefer isn’t the only sorceress whose past gets tweaked here and there. The Witcher show alters a lot of things about the supporting sorceress characters, usually to good effect.

For example, take Triss Merigold, the red-haired sorceress who works with Geralt to defeat the striga, King Foltest’s cursed daughter, in the episode “Betrayer Moon.” In the books, she’s not present in this story at all. Hissrich and company likely added her in to fill out the supporting cast, and set her up for an important role down the line. That role will likely become clear in the second season, which adapts the book Blood of Elves.

Or take Fringilla Vigo, a sorceress who trains with Yennefer at the magical academy of Aretuza, and who is eventually assigned to advise the ruler of Nilfgaard. Eventually, she and her former classmates fight on opposite sides at the Battle of Sodden.

Well, it’s true that Fringilla fights for Nilfgaard at Sodden, but in the books, she never went to Aretuza. She’s a Nilfgaardian by birth, and trained there. The show likely gave her a prior relationship with the magic users of the North to punch up the drama a bit.

And then there’s Tissaia de Vries, Yennefer’s teacher at Aretuza. The show gets her demeanor right; Tissaia is a stern woman who believes in order, but ultimately has her heart in the right place.

But the show version is a bit much. For example, in the books we never hear of Tissaia turning failing students into eels to power the school. Most likely that wouldn’t fly in the book’s version of Aretuza, which is mostly populated by people who are paying tuition to be there, and who usually survive even if they fail and drop out.

This makes for a memorable image but raises some questions the show may not be prepared to answer. Better it had died at the ideas stage, if you ask us.